Hydrophobic radicals embedded in neutral surfactants for dynamic nuclear polarization of aqueous environments at 9.4 Tesla

Abstract

We show how large DNP enhancements of NMR signals can be obtained from several hydrophobic radicals that are solubilised in aqueous environments by a variety of biologically compatible neutral amphiphiles. In particular we show that the bi-radical TEKPOL can be incorporated into micelles formed by the surfactant polysorbate 80 (Tween-80), where we obtain large DNP enhancements (∼60) at 9.4 T and ∼100 K.